


Chasing Dogs in Moonlight

by SegaBarrett



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Hogwarts Sixth Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 03:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3275090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The calm before what always manages to be a storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chasing Dogs in Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [perfectworry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectworry/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I make no money from this.
> 
> A/N: Title is from the song "One-Eyed Hound" by Genesis. 
> 
> A/N #2: Thank you to my beta, Chaosprincess!

Luna Lovegood saw things that other people didn’t see. That’s what Hermione liked about her, though it had also been what had turned her off at first. Hermione had already been seen as an oddball for being so smart; part of her hadn’t wished to draw any more attention to herself.

Maybe, in a way, she had been intimidated. Luna didn’t care what other people thought of her. She just went out in the world and said what she felt. 

It had to be so lonely, though. For her first four years at Hogwarts, she had seemed to be without a friend in the world. Hermione still felt like she should have said something at the time, reached out before that day that they’d all shared the same carriage.

But, as she knew, kids could be selfish. They could be drawn into their own struggles and forget everyone else, even when they were kids who were saving the world on a yearly basis. 

It was Sixth Year, now, and even though it seemed as if everything was about to start falling apart around them again, at a moment’s notice, Hermione tried to find time for herself. For some of the other important things.

Like Luna.

They had taken to getting together in the library, just sitting around and talking, sometimes about nothing at all. Anything other than the things that awaited them and the things that had passed, and that was nice. It was nice to step away from things for a while. Whenever Hermione wrote to her parents, talking about anything other than Voldemort seemed forced. But with Luna, she knew what the situation was, what everyone didn’t want to talk about. They didn’t have to avoid the topic, simply to pick some other one. And she always had a variety of topics to suggest.

Even if some of those topics were odd, to say the least.

***

Hermione sat down in the library, flipping through her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. It was frustrating that once she had gotten used to Snape in one setting, he had moved to an entirely different one. It was almost like he did it on purpose just to keep everyone on their toes, or to make their lives miserable. Not that the two weren’t mutually exclusive.

“Oh,” a soft voice cut into her thoughts. “Defense Against the Dark Arts.” 

Hermione looked up.

“I was just thinking about you,” she told Luna, neglecting the urge to clarify that that had been prior to her griping in her head about Snape.

“You were? Nice things, I hope. Especially since I was actually thinking about you, too.” Luna’s eyes lit up. Hermione loved the way she managed to look, fascinated by the simplest things. “How is that class going?” Luna ran her hands over the front of the book, as if she was reading something into it, or telling its fortune like Trelawney had pretended to do. 

“The usual,” Hermione said simply, “Harry thought he was getting away from Snape, but lo and behold, there he is.” Her look said the rest.

Luna shrugged.

“He actually seems to like me. We’ve talked about Blibbering Humdingers. I wrote an extra credit report on which Potions subdue them if you encounter a herd.”  
Hermione stared at her, mind-boggled, and wanted to ask her if she had any objective evidence that Snape hadn’t just been talking to her to mock her to her face, but stopped herself. If Luna could find good in a man like Snape, then that was her right, wasn’t it? It also wasn’t as if Luna had required objective proof for anything before. 

“So Hermione,” Luna continued, looking down at the table, “Have we any plans for this afternoon? My homework is finished and I… don’t usually have much to do after class, except when my father sends me an owl to ask for an editorial for the Quibbler. Other than that… the days get… rather lonely.” She raised her eyes to look into Hermione’s, and the older girl felt a thrill in her heart that she’d only gotten before when spending time with Victor Krum. This was rather unexpected, but not unpleasant. 

“I… Well, I don’t have any plans right now. But if you’d like to do something together, I’d… enjoy that, Luna.”

Luna smiled. 

“Well, it’s too late to start off for Hogsmeade. I think everyone else has gone. But I… well, I’d sort of like to head by the grounds and maybe… well, I like to spend time with some of the creatures out there.” At Hermione’s worried look, she chuckled. “Only the gentle ones. Though it’s interesting – most creatures are gentle if you really give them a chance.”

Hermione wasn’t entirely sure she agreed with that, but she saw that Luna believed whole-heartedly in what she’d said, so she held her tongue. It was better to bask in the glow than to insist on being right, even though Hermione did quite enjoy being right. 

“It’d be nice,” Hermione told her. “You can show me all the ones… all your favorites. Maybe we’ll even discover some new ones...”

Luna smiled. 

“I’d like that.” She shut her eyes. “You know, I’ve never seen a unicorn. I’d love to, though. Have you?”

***

“Ah, unicorns. They live in the Forbidden Forest,” Hagrid told them. He seemed very excited that people were actually interested in his class for once, considering that nobody had signed up for it that year. He had eventually ended up with a few Slytherins who had gotten thrown out of some of the other advanced classes for various ill-fated pranks, and one Hufflepuff who had either shown up at the wrong spot and was too polite to say anything, or who had a romantic interest in one of the Slytherins. 

“Now, Hagrid… I know we don’t usually follow most of the rules but given that there isn’t a crisis yet… the Forbidden Forest seems to usually be, well, forbidden?”

“Ye got a point, Hermione. Well… if yeh stay closeta the edge, sometimes they venture out. Might take yeh all day, though.”

“We didn’t have any other plans,” Hermione admitted. “Luna wants to see a unicorn. Let’s see a unicorn.”

Hagrid smiled.

“You two…” He shook his head fondly. “I’ll be in me cabin. Yeh need me… just lemme know. You two have fun. An’ maybe you’ll decide to be back a’ my class next year. Maybe?”

He walked off, humming a merry tune.

Hermione laughed. 

“Oh, Hagrid. He’s… he’s really good.” She turned back to Luna and took a seat on the ground, sitting cross-legged.

“He is,” Luna agreed quietly, sitting down next to her, “So are you.”

“I try,” Hermione said with a shrug. She had always been told that she was bright, that she might have been the smartest witch of her age, but to be good… that was something to aspire to for one’s whole life. And in her eyes, Luna was already there, always there without trying.

That wasn’t always true though, was it? There had been times when she had been brutally honest to the point of hurting people’s feelings, but there was no malice there. It was hard to hold it against her.

They sat for a long time, in silence. 

There was something beautiful about it. It was almost a sound in itself. If Hermione had to compare it to something, she would have said it sounded like the fireflies that had flown around her home, before she knew for sure that she was something special but after she’d already begun to wonder if that was true. She had let them perch on her finger and she had whispered secrets to them, changed the color of their little lights from yellow to red to green and laughed as they made rainbows in the sky.

Then they saw the slightest wisp of a tail. Hermione was sure that she’d imagined it at first, that it was her eyes playing tricks on her after staring ahead for too long, trying not to look at Luna for fear that she’d say something with her eyes, reveal some secret she was trying to hold on to.

She didn’t know what would make it worse… maybe not worse, but more complicated… if Luna would say yes to the thoughts bouncing around in Hermione’s head, or if she’d say no.

“Hermione, look!” Luna whispered.

Hermione’s eyes went wide. The gentle hooves of the unicorn trotted up to them, glided up to them and laid his head on Luna’s lap.

“You’re beautiful,” she whispered to the beautiful creature.

Hermione whispered, looking at Luna, “You are, too.”

Maybe one day she would say it out loud. One day when the rest of the world wasn’t moving so fast. One day when the world would slow to a glide and lay its gentle head in between them so that they could bask in the moonlight instead of having to chase it.


End file.
